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Sikh shooting victim leaves grieving family in India

By Muneeza NaqviThe Associated Press

Posted:
08/08/2012 01:00:00 AM MDT

Updated:
08/08/2012 03:05:33 AM MDT

Surinder Kaur, center, the wife of Sita Singh, who was killed in the shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin, is comforted Tuesday by her son Armeet and daughter Sarabjit, right, at the family home. Singh was killed alongside his brother Ranjeet. (Kevin Frayer, The Associated Press)

NEW DELHI —For 16 years, Lokinder Kaur waited patiently for the day her husband would be reunited with her and their children. That dream died with him in a Sikh temple in Wisconsin.

Ranjit Singh, one of six killed in a shooting attack at the temple, never came home even once in all those years, working at a grocery store during the week and volunteering at the Sikh gurdwara on weekends. He promised his family he was doing what had to be done to get a green card so they could come join him.

He called every few days, even as the months dragged into years. Kaur said she spoke to Singh just the day before a gunman entered the temple in Oak Creek, Wis., and shot worshippers as they prepared for services on Sunday.

Photos: Sikh Temple Shootings

Singh sang devotional songs at the temple and took care of worshipers, serving them meals. His brother, who died in the attack as well, often sang with him.

All Kaur was left with is a recent photograph of Singh, dressed sharply in a crisp shirt and tie and smiling confidently into the camera.

"My children keep asking me, 'What did papa look like?" she said, sobbing at her faded memory of her husband's face. "I have no answers."

When Singh first left for the United States, his son was just 7 months old, his daughters 4 and 6. He had a visa for just six months.

"My husband had only one dream. To see his children settled abroad," Kaur said as she sat surrounded by grieving family and friends in her modest two-story home in a Delhi neighborhood.

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To chase that dream, he kept renewing his visa, finally applying for a green card a few years ago.

"Every six months, he would tell me he would be home soon."

His daughters got married while he was away. His son grew up knowing him only as the voice on the phone, the image in the photographs.

"I just don't understand what happened over there. Why did they die," Kaur asked, sitting on the floor — a tradition in an Indian house of mourning — but leaning against a sofa, exhausted by her grief.

According to police, the suspect, 40-year-old Wade Michael Page, was a failed soldier who played in white supremacist heavy metal bands, but his motive remained a mystery. He was killed by police.

On Tuesday., Mitt Romney called the shooting "tragic." The Republican presidential candidate opened a campaign event near Chicago by asking for a moment of silence. He said it appears the shooter was "motivated by hate" and that Sikhs are peaceful and loving.

With their turbans and beards, Sikhs are often mistaken for Muslims or Arabs, and have been targeted in post-Sept. 11 bias attacks in the U.S. The New York-based Sikh Coalition reported more than 700 incidents in the U.S. since 2001.

A short distance away from Lokinder's home, similar scenes of mourning cloud the home of her slain brother-in-law Sita Singh, who traveled back and forth routinely from India to the United States.

His wife, Surinder Kaur, first got word that something had happened in a 1:30 a.m. phone call from a relative, who said the brothers had been shot. Three hours later, they were dead.

"It's just us women left all alone to look after our children," Surinder Kaur said.

The victims

Satwant Singh Kaleka, 65, managed to find a simple butter knife in the temple and tried to stab the gunman even after being shot twice near the hip or upper leg, his son said Monday.

Amardeep Singh Kaleka said FBI agents hugged him Sunday, shook his hand and said, "Your dad's a hero" for fighting to the death while protecting others.

"Whatever time he spent in that struggle gave the women time to get cover" in the kitchen, Kaleka said. One of the women was his mother, who called police.

Relatives said Kaleka dedicated his life to the members of the Oak Creek temple, of which he was considered the founder.

His nephew Jatinder Mangat said Kaleka was always willing to help out with any job.

"He doesn't care what he's wearing, what he's doing, he'll just be there for you," Mangat said. "We used to say 'It's OK, we'll have somebody else do it,' and he'd say, 'No, no, I'll do it,' even if it was a dirty job. He'll do anything."

Paramjit Kaur finished her morning prayers, a daily ritual for the deeply spiritual mother of two, and walked into the temple's front hallway Sunday and was fatally shot.

Kaur's friends remembered the 41-year-old wife Monday as sweet, outspoken and devoted to her family and her faith. They said she was also hard-working — spending 11 hours a day, 6 days a week, in production at a medical devices firm in order to provide for her children.

"I'll miss her so much," said 42-year-old Manpreet Kaur, of Franklin, who described herself as Paramjit Kaur's closest friend. They are not related.

Suveg Singh Khattra was a constant presence at the temple. Most days, his son, a taxi driver, would drop him off there to pray.

Khattra and his wife moved to the United States eight years ago to join their son. On Sunday, the 84-year-old former farmer from northern India was shot and killed. "He don't have hatred for anybody. He loved to live here," said son Baljinder Khattra, who moved from the family's farm in Patiala, a city in Punjab, in 1994.

Kulwant Kaur, the elder Khattra's daughter-in-law, hid with the other women in the pantry. When a SWAT team evacuated them, Kaur saw Khattra's body lying on the ground.

The elder Khattra spoke no English, communicating instead with neighbors and friends with his hands.

Prakash Singh's wife and teenage children were living in the temple. Recently, they had moved from India to join the Sikh priest in Wisconsin.

Navdeep Gill, an 18-year-old temple member from Franklin, said Singh had rented an apartment nearby and his family was due to move in by the end of the month. Singh's son and daughter will start school soon; the daughter is in high school and the son is going to be a freshman in high school.

As a Sikh priest, Singh performed daily services, which would have included recitations from the religion's holy book, leading prayers and lecturing on how to practice Sikhism.

Gill said Singh had a fun-loving personality — "telling jokes and whatnot" — and looked nothing close to his age of 39.

Ranjit and Sita Singh shared the bonds of brotherhood — as siblings and as Sikh priests, both in Wisconsin to serve their faith.

Ranjit Singh, 49, made it his responsibility to take care of everyone who visited the temple.

The temple's secretary, 56-year-old Inderjeet Singh Dhillon, said Monday that Singh made sure guests were well fed.

It was the same with Singh's brother, 41-year-old Sita Singh, who had arrived in the United States a year ago. Though Sita Singh was quieter than his brother, he was no less dedicated to the temple's visitors. Both men lived at the temple.

Dhillon said that the younger Singh would wake up every morning between 4:30 and 5 to read the Sikh holy book. Afterward, he would see which visitors had come in and ensure all had prasad, the food offering given at the end of every prayer session.

The elder Singh brother became a mentor to some of the temple members, including Shehbazdeep Kaleka, a 19-year-old from Racine and the nephew of the temple president.

Kaleka said Monday that he turned to Ranjit Singh when he was down and needed advice, because Singh was a positive person.

Singh's most common advice to the 19-year-old was to sing and sing loudly and that would lift his spirits. "He was a very good and honest man. He didn't deserve to die."

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